In one of your early papers you established a possible link between thyroid cancer in women in Cumbria, in north-west England, and fallout from Chernobyl in Ukraine.

The trends in thyroid carcinomas in young women in north-west England show a consistent rise since the late 1980s. But our research also shows an increase in areas that didn't receive fallout from Chernobyl, so there may be multifactorial causes at work.

There are pesticides that have been banned from indoor use in the US but are legal in the European Union, which may cause developmental, emotional and possibly autistic-spectrum disorders.

We're collating the evidence and consulting experts to put forward a case to policy-makers to implement a similar ban to the one in North America.

Your colleagues have reportedly been very supportive but do you worry that the publicity around you being Belle de Jour will hinder your career?

Yes. That was the main reason for my anonymity. If I had just wanted to be a writer it probably would have been more profitable to come out sooner, but working in science is important to me.

Science was so important to you, in fact, that you worked as an escort.

Let's be frank, postdocs are not well paid - being debt-free enabled me to continue to choose science jobs I love rather than changing career.

So for you the benefits of not being in debt outweighed the dangers of prostitution?

The particular situation I was in was far less dangerous than streetwalking and paid sufficiently well that I didn't have to do it for very long. Also I met fewer men than a streetwalker would in the same period, and again that decreased the chances of a bad experience.

I trusted my instincts, and the agency was very good about vetting clients as well.

Should British PhD students be paid a proper wage, as they are in other countries?

I'm in two minds about this: if paid a wage, they may also be expected to do more teaching, which would result in the PhD taking far longer, as it does in other countries.

I had offers of PhD places both here and in the US, and chose Sheffield because it would take half the time.

You are currently writing a novel. How does being a scientist inform your writing?

Science is my main career ambition. Writing up a project is an especially satisfying pursuit, which probably puts me in a minority of scientists.

What do you say to the charge that you have glamorised prostitution?

Call girls existed long before I got into the game, and details of what that life is like were well established before I started writing about it. Implying I single-handedly turned the business around is flattering but doesn't stand much scrutiny.

There are science-based arguments to be made for legalising the sex trade: for example, it would reduce the spread of STIs such as HIV. Is this something you would support?

In the UK, prostitution itself is legal - pimping, soliciting and brothels are not. This results in a huge safety gap between call girls and streetwalkers.

Doesn't it make sense for women at all price points in the sex business to have the same protection I did, and in doing so, possibly gain the leverage over traffickers and clients they need to protect their personal and sexual health?

How were you able to conceal your identity as Belle de Jour for so long?

My anonymity was maintained the old-fashioned way: good old confusing paper trail. We set up a corporation with other people on the board.

It wasn't internet sleuthing that led to my outing: it was because I'd told someone I couldn't trust.

The papers didn't find me, not because I'm a master of subterfuge, but because they assumed I would be one of their own - not a small-time blogger.

I'm deeply humbled by Brooke's openness, humanity and her independent determination. I just think that a modern Britain should be more supportive of its students and give greater consideration to their hardships.

Joker
on November 20, 2009 6:52 PM

I bet the PhD viva or "spoken part" was a treat for her examiners.

Magna cum laude.

Annoyed Tunbridge Wells
on November 20, 2009 7:21 PM

(I bet NS won't dare print this)

Excuse me, a good looking, intelligent (and probably cultured) woman like that could have any man (or woman) she wanted. She could have found herself a stockbroker or banker, then divorced and done well out of the arrangement. She could have even found herself an older research fellow/lecturer/professor/administrator.

She puts herself in a position of risk from violence and sexual diseases deliberately and NS is trying to portray her as some kind of victim and brave feminist role model?!

The truth be known is that she has a sex addiction and a self-abasement fetish. Though many women in such positions have a drug habit or history of abuse as a mitigating point.

I find it hard that she is regarded as having good character such that she was admitted to a forensics department or working with children with no background checks.

Really NS! This has been in the tabloids all week and we expected better than the moral relativism degeneration zeitgeist you've given in too.

Tim
on November 20, 2009 7:30 PM

For a very brief period, people will associate "Belle de Jour" with this lame book and not the great Bunuel film.

AFemaleSci
on November 20, 2009 7:33 PM

I take issue with some of the point being made here. I think Dr. Magnanti was simply solving two problems at once, getting easy money and indulging a sexual kink. Which is fine, but let's not pretend it's because her PhD made her broke. There are lots of us, myself included, who found money difficult to come by during write-up and we didn't have to resort to prostitution. I find this disingenuous and frankly it feeds the ugly side of discrimination against women in science, a side which I suspect she's going to see with a lot more frequency in her male colleagues now that she's come out. It also feeds part of the ugliness of the sex trade, because like it or not, Dr. Magnanti did glamorize it and she is essentially a middle-class dilettante... prostitution is an ugly, ugly business for 99% of those involved. I would have more respect for her if she simply said being a call girl was a part of llife she was interested in exploring, rather than pretend that it was just about money as a convenient screen.

Why to support morally fringe persons, especially for science? There is always possibility to earn money in worthier way.

Jeremy
on November 20, 2009 7:55 PM

I'm a male with a Ph.D., and if I were a female I would have strongly considered being a prostitute as a sideline to make going through academia financially stress-free. I've heard of undergraduates working at strippers at my undergrad university, which was all the more shocking because it was during the height of the feminist era and it seemed that no women were interested in sex! I guess camouflage while doing the improbable is the best protector of one's privacy.

Brooke says that her Ph.D. program in the UK took half the time it would have in the US because she didn't have to do any teaching. I find this a little hard to believe. True, many doctoral students in the US either do teaching or work as lab assistants, but they do this in exchange for tuition and a small salary, and it doesn't double the length of their program.

So Brits get out of high school at age 15 and get PhDs in half the time as in America. It makes me wonder about the quality of "educated" people over there. There is more scientific research done at our health science center in Houston than there probably is in the entire UK, and I wonder if the quality of British education is one reason why.

Richard Smart
on November 20, 2009 7:55 PM

If only a man could earn as much money as a woman can from selling sex. I'm not saying I would do that and, for the record, I will never pay for sex either.

WarrenB
on November 20, 2009 8:10 PM

I wish I was a pretty, young woman!
As a nerdy, balding man, I couldn't prostitute myself during my own post-graduate work, and now I'm saddled with debt!

Another sexy scientist
on November 20, 2009 8:23 PM

As a biochemist and a stripper, I was very pleasantly surprised to hear this story. :)

I must say, when I got into the industry I was very surprised by the number of girls in the same position. It's obviously nowhere near the majority, but it is a sizeable minority - in the very small club I work in currently, in a relatively rural area in the American Midwest, we have a veterinary medicine graduate, an oncology graduate, and two science undergrads.

Tom Keller
on November 20, 2009 9:19 PM

Yearly salary for a person running around a grassy field kicking a leather ball :
100.000 + pounds.
Yearly salery for a scientist trying to find a cure against illness that kills millions every year :
20000 - 30000 pounds. ( if lucky )
Can anyone else see the fault?
We need more scientists not more sports people.
Perhaps we should try and make the politicians actually work for a living and start the debate by asking what kind of world we would like to live in tomorrow.
Dear Miss Magnanti,
I see you as a ray of light for modern women everywhere, as you have certainly broken the stereotype of ladies being stupid/unlucky/destitude just because they work in the oldest service business in the world.
Thank you very much.
I hope your career wil be long and prosperous, and I hope you will never have to bend your head for the religous crowd trying to keep us all in the dark ages.

Lavi
on November 20, 2009 9:46 PM

It is a great thing to have her example to quote when it comes to prejudices about call girls, about scientists and how they live.

Punter
on November 20, 2009 9:50 PM

Wow! Before this article in another thread about Grigori Perelman I believed doing the Hollywood eccentric genius bit and excepting prizes from people/establishments one detests would mark him out as a publicity whore. Find the price and he'll break is the attitude.

But... Amazing, an actual publicity whore!!! and she thinks she'll get the respect from the community by splashing her sordid life over the tabloids and pulp book deals!!!

Apart from the cruel laughter who would trust her professional judgement if she is so money oriented? One would also worry for the forces possibly manipulating her (big business?, organised crime? never far away in that world) and I noticed she did some forensic work. Shocking.

Not that long ago too, university staff were considered locum parentis. As an academic who would trust her around young minds?

Also, what partner would want to be with her now? So free and easy, if the price is right, who would want to get into anything committal with her? She's told the whole world now.

Such a strange, strange person. I can't imagine if she kept it quiet that there would have been a problem (unless it was with the chief of funding agencies, chief of police, the VC etc). Just who in the academic community could afford high class hookers, I can't imagine she'd be bumping into them in the corridor? THERE ARE BLACKMAIL AND HARASSMENT LAWS with severe criminal penalties.

As an academic I know of many rumours about students, it is simply don't ask don't tell. Most couldn't be substantiated.

She could have gotten on with her life. One is left wondering why - what *is* her game?

It seems people will do anything to be famous these days.

Greg
on November 20, 2009 10:01 PM

It is disgraceful that people working in such important endeavors for the future of a society are valued so little and paid so little that they have to consider this to get by. It shows that the priorities in this society are skewed. Football players who contribute nothing to the long-term well being of a society in many instances get paid inordinate salaries for what they do. Yet people who save lives in the healthcare system and scientists who are ultimately responsible for the creation of new technology generting wealth and comfort for everyone get paid a pittance. It makes one think that that the advancement of huan civilization through technology has been a fortuitous accident or an incredible and arduous achievenemnt by a few extrodinary individuals since it is clear that society as a whole has never appreciated the value of what they are doing. Maybe as a whole the human race is not so evolved after all.

Paula
on November 20, 2009 10:27 PM

There are many other, more appropriate ways of supplementing income than selling ones body to strangers? How about imparting your ammassed knowledge to younger students? Run an afterschool science club to recruit the children of today's pushy parents? Go to special needs schools and bring your knowledge to more worthy customers?

On a personal level, one wonders what effect this behaviour would have on any future relationships she may attempt to form.

Trevor
on November 20, 2009 10:30 PM

It makes one think that that the advancement of huan civilization through technology has been ... an incredible and arduous achievenemnt by a few extrodinary individuals since it is clear that society as a whole has never appreciated the value of what they are doing. Maybe as a whole the human race is not so evolved after all.

This is absolutely correct.

Eve
on November 20, 2009 10:54 PM

Thanks for the NS interview. All to often PhD students and post-docs are pimped and not primed. You words speak volumes.

Farweasel
on November 20, 2009 11:15 PM

I vaguely recall years back there was an outcry about student nurses being so poorly paid quite a number were working as strippers in Soho on their days off.

The establishment soon solved that 'problem'.
No, they didn't increase their pay. Their professional body let it be known they were at risk of being struck off for unprofessional conduct.
Flawless logic and highly cost efficient at a micro level.

Shame there's so few 'home grown' nurses about these days of course.

joe
on November 20, 2009 11:23 PM

@ greg:

Yes, Scientists are the Serfs of the Information age, spending their labour for the creation of knowledge that is used to profit the corporations and governments that control it.

For those that believe in the good they are doing, enough money to get by is all they are really needing, the rest go and study Law.

Humbling, open, honest, accepting of personal error and direct. Absolutely everything that I expect from a quality scientist.

Bravo.

Bill
on November 21, 2009 12:09 AM

Surely there must have been great scientists who used call girls, so I see no reason why there can not be great scientists who were call girls. That being said, it is not a given that it will work swimmingly in this case. Dr. Magnanti, as her pseudonym Belle, has called worldwide attention to her previous career and to her colorful attitudes towards men. I wish the men who pass through her professional life the best of luck navigating her documented experience in manipulation and her acknowledged willingness to do so even within the confines of her profession if it will get her foot in the door. Likewise I wish Dr. Magnanti the best of luck in building healthy professional relationships with men despite the inevitable (if not always obvious) distrust and intimidation some of them will no doubt feel on working with, as she herself puts it, "the most famous prostitute in world".

It is a brave thing Dr. Magnanti does, a self-described expert in compartmentalization now attempting to re-integrate two personas. She faces a terrible dilemma. Belle built a celebrated identity of breezy self-confidence based on her ability to avoid feeling anything inconvenient at the wrong time. Even now Belle advises others interested in the trade that if it occurs to them to ask how it feels, they are not cut out for it. If Dr. Magnanti erases the walls within herself, if she takes the wrecking ball to Belle's defenses, what damage will that do to Belle's success? On the other hand, if Dr. Magnanti props up Belle even when it means maintaining separate identities, what damage will that do to her ability to be at peace with herself and her world going forward?

As a whole person, Dr. Magnanti has so much to offer the world. As separate identities, I fear each of them will sabotage the other. Let us wish her the strength to be whole.

Jack Ring
on November 21, 2009 12:10 AM

Given the therapeutic value of laughter in particular and enjoyment in general perhaps futbol players have far greater contribution the the health of 30,000 blokes for two hours than does 30 strokes for a few minutes or a science experiment that doesn't prove fallibility of a theory. Science is a technique, not a God.
Jack Ring

Vendicar Decarian
on November 21, 2009 12:41 AM

Gosh.... What does Dr. Who think about this?

Julie
on November 21, 2009 1:31 AM

I think science is gaining momentum, becoming more prominent in everyday society. Science has never been marketted, which is why science journals are less popular than fashion magazines. I think sex and sexiness have a universal appeal and perhaps Brooke Magnanti helped science by making it more visible. The scientific method is a brave choice because it demands a sytematic way of thinking - it is humanity's best hope for eliminating biase and ultimately bringing us closer to truth. I will let science speak for itself and if the scientist is sexy, well that never hurt anyone.

I congratulate Brooke on her openness, courage and determination to succeed against the odds, but it concerns me that there are many other students struggling to complete their studies against the same odds; who will not choose the same course. I think everyone nowadays understands the importance of science and we should do more to help not only future scientists, but all who participate in the search for knowledge. Good luck Brooke and I hope that in time you are recognized for what you have achieved and not for what you have done

bill
on November 21, 2009 3:07 AM

I've never met a prostitute, and I've never met someone with a doctorate in forensic pathology. Prior to reading this, given the choice, I'd have been coy as to which I'd choose. Now, it's clear: the doctorate would win, hands down. She comes across as what she in fact is: an intelligent, accomplished woman. Thanks for asking her.

Rick Burlow
on November 21, 2009 3:51 AM

Interesting article - however, I find its tone veering toward titillation rather than information.

I'm sure Brooke Magnanti isn't the first person to pay for her education through escort services or prostitution.

So she worked as an escort. So what? It has nothing to do with her capacity as an epidemiologist, or as a forensic pathologist.

Stick to science, not tabloid trash, please.

Bill
on November 21, 2009 5:26 AM

This seems like the interview was not really well thought out. Isn't the more interesting aspect of the psychology of her circumstance? It is relatively rare that analytical science types would involve themselves in prostitution according to studies.

Better questions to ask would be things like:

What kind of psychological barriers did you need to over come to engage in this activity?

How does your background family experiences, life at school etc influence your choice of engaging in this activity?

How would you characterise your clients from a psychological perspective, what kind of insights have you gained from the nature of male sexuality or even your own?

Questions like those would have been a bit more informative. The nature of high class escorting must be quite different from other forms of sexual services.

It is also interesting to note that Levitt and Dubner of Superfreakonomics have also recently discussed the economic nature of escorting only a few weeks ago.

DocM
on November 21, 2009 6:03 AM

Titillating as it may be it's true.

During my time in the medical profession in the US I knew many nursing, lab and other technological students who paid their way through school as either strippers or call girls, so it's not just a UK phenomenon.

Bottom line is that a lack of scholarships for critical skills sometimes leads people to make tough choices.

Peter
on November 21, 2009 8:58 AM

One can imagine that a call-girl-in-academia might even be a more interesting supplier.

Should such expenses then not be tax-exempt for the punters as they are a direct contribution to alleviate government spending?

Stephen
on November 21, 2009 10:14 AM

I think that Brooke Magnanti deserves all the support she can get - not that she seems to need a lot. She's stronger than most of us will ever be.

As for those who would judge her - do we really need to listen?

Julie
on November 21, 2009 10:16 AM

I wonder if the cancer rates in the north east of England may not be linked more to the proximity of Sellafield? The Welsh hills also received a thorough drenching of radioactive rain at the time of the Chernobyl explosion, do their inhabitants show a similar trend?

Valerie
on November 21, 2009 11:38 AM

I think there is an aspect here that Ms. Magnanti is playing down - her desire to be rich (fair enough, people can pursue what goals they will) and to wear Victoria Beckam dresses.

Prostitution, such a lucrative industry, as a result of economic necessity and distorted attitudes to sex is a long debate.

Whatever happened to the Utopian dream of free love?

Let's ask the lady fruit bat.

ray
on November 21, 2009 12:33 PM

Hi Brooke. Call me.

Janssen
on November 21, 2009 12:36 PM

I think Dr Magnanti is in danger of becoming the new "thinking man's totty" Perhaps she could take over on Countdown since Carol Vorderman has left.Seriously though,lets hope her experiences encourage people to take up science as a career and help remove the public perception that all scientists are boring duffers.

Robert Scarth
on November 21, 2009 1:20 PM

"Football players who contribute nothing to the long-term well being of a society in many instances get paid inordinate salaries for what they do. Yet people who save lives in the healthcare system and scientists who are ultimately responsible for the creation of new technology generting wealth and comfort for everyone get paid a pittance."

Supercilious nonsense. Footballers bring pleasure to hundreds of thousands of people every week. That is not a trivial achievement, and it deserves to be rewarded. Additionally the money paid to footballers is paid entirely voluntarily, all Government funded science is paid for with money which is taken from law abiding people under the threat of violence.

Nick
on November 21, 2009 3:55 PM

She certainly does give a good name to prostitution. Not only is she attractive. But she is smart. So smart that no one can seriously claim she was exploited and trafficked by the men.

Lately it has become fashionable for governments to jail customers of prostitutes. And her coming out like this certainly puts to shame such injustice.

Sex between consenting adults is their business and not anyone else's. And the only ethically acceptable government interference in such relationships is making sure that the consent is real, and there is no coercion.

Righteous Man
on November 21, 2009 4:43 PM

Sadly typical of the depravity that feminism is reducing society to. There's no need for any woman to behave like this - there are plenty of decent men they could get married to and combine their resources to buy their own homes. Many men already have their own homes anyway, but women say "there must be something wrong with him coz he's still single". And then women are prostituting themselves or having group sex in porno videos while other women are going on about their feminist right and "men only think about sex", and then other females leave school with no qualification and breed with hooligans and live off benefits coz it's their right, while ignoring decent young men coz they're too nice. Shame on feminism - the sooner global warming kills the world the better!

Tiffany
on November 21, 2009 6:26 PM

When I was a student (in the U.S.) I paid for all of my university education by working as a secretary, which can be pretty degrading work, maybe even more so. I would never have had the courage to do what she did, but honestly I was probably treated with more contempt and scorn than she was (and tolerated creepier and more verbally abusive male bosses than she did) and she was probably paid MUCH more than I was. Good for you Brooke! I hope you're laughing all the way to the bank!

Ashley
on November 21, 2009 7:41 PM

I wholeheartedly agree with Janssen's comment about breaking the stereotype of scientists being "boring duffers." I myself work in Entomology, but my colleauges are far from boring!!!

I've been a big fan of Dr. Magnanti's blog and books for some time. I always thought she was an amazing person, but the fact that she is a scientist just makes her even more awesome. To be so brilliant and dedicated to research, and still be so down-to-earth, that's just awesome in my book :)

Kate
on November 21, 2009 8:08 PM

I agree with 'Bill' that there are more important questions that should be asked, whether here or elsewhere.

As a woman, I know I could not engage in prostitution, however desperate I became. For many women, sex is still too intimate an act to allow such a course.

The danger of 'Belle de Jour' is not so much that it glamourises, but that it normalises prostitution. Where will this lead? With the clamour of so called libertarian voices that 'it's only a job' or 'prostitution will always be with us', plus the sensible arguments that legalisation would provide more protection for prostitutes, how soon before we get jobs in brothels advertised in job centres? How soon before women have their benefits stopped if they don't take them up? How soon before every university campus has a brothel so that impoverished students can finance their studies?

Prostitution is the use by a man of a woman as a 'thing', not a human being. No matter that he is paying her, this act is damaging to the status of women as a whole. In most cases and by most accounts, prostitution is a sordid business. Women who claim that it's no big deal and didn't affect them mentally allow men who use prostitutes to continue deluding themselves that their victims either enjoy it, or view it with as much detachment as they do.

I think that Dr Magnanti has done the world a great service. A friend recently told me she had been a prostitute in our licenced brothels, where women are well protected. I was able to affirm that I thought that prostitution is an honourable profession; I already knew that university students used it to pay their way. Nothing new in this, but Brooke has given us an excellent picture, in her books, of a woman with a lot of autonomy choosing her own way, and that gives a liberating message to many women.

Kinglizard
on November 21, 2009 10:16 PM

As a Biological Anthropologist (retired) I can relate to the expense of education as well as the biology of emotions. Brooke demonstrates a very ancient and common aspect of social behavior.

Evolution provides an assortment of biological "tools" to all social animals. Higher primates, especially Human females, have used their enhanced secondary sexual characteristics to gain security for themselves and their offspring since prehistoric times and we still see many examples of these instinctive behaviors every day in the 21st Century.

Brooke's Intellect may be superior to many women who work in the "Sexual Service" Industry, but my research and experience lead me to the inescapable conclusion that primate Females instinctively use sex to manipulate the social environment to their advantage, and probably always will.

Anon
on November 21, 2009 10:43 PM

Lol maybe I should be a male prostitute, as it would allow me to do my Ph.D.

Mel
on November 22, 2009 12:01 AM

Dr Meganti is not 'the thinking man's totty". She is the "not thinking terribly hard man's totty" jannsen's comment is an insult to Carol Vorderman. Carol Vorderman is not a whore.
Science is on one side a beautiful distillation of human cognitive experience and on the other a refuge for those who find it difficult to engage emotionally with the world.
Science is completely amoral and cannot inform morality - giving us both men on the moon and the holocaust. Using guys who worked for the same regime! There is nothing awesome about whoring yourself. If Dr. Meganti is to be praised for anything it is that she has kept the montrous side of herself for her (erstwhile) private life and kept it out of her science. Not all scientists have been so diligent.

stoffer
on November 22, 2009 1:04 AM

I have one advice for people from UK who want to do science and be appreciated, also financially, for that. Come to Scandinavia. UK after Ms M. Tatcher is being consumed and crippled by the same disease as USA - the blind Taleeban style neolibralism.

Fostering science and research is in the business of society, but not necessarily in the business of the private sector. Most of groundbreaking scientific discoveries which changed and improved our lives were funded by the government. Even the Internet was a government project. Private industry would never agree for open standards of the Internet, they do not want them now either. Proprietary protocols, DRM and like a obvious consequence of that.

Antony C.P.Clarke
on November 22, 2009 4:34 AM

Interesting; but what do the male PhDs do to avoid debt?

vishwa
on November 22, 2009 6:26 AM

a real ordeal in fact, but i'm really amazed that she kept her mental integrity for so long working as .... great really great and inspiring!!!!

I wonder what the comments would be if Dr Magnanti had said she had taken her other job as part of a scientific study?
The only pity is that her subject is not psychology, as then she might throw some light on why anyone in this day and age even raises an eyebrow at her confessions.

Jo
on November 22, 2009 9:24 AM

Interesting question about Ph.D. opportunities in other places where people are paid a real salary. In Science in Britain it's not the lack of a salary that is the issue - the stipend that goes with most Ph.D. places is more than enough to live a comfortable, if modest, lifestyle. The real issue comes after the three years are up. Many people still have a good six months or so to go until the thesis is finished, handed in, examined and corrected, six months with little or, often, no financial support whatsoever. Often this is not made clear at the outset of the doctoral studies, unless you are lucky and have four years' funding and are told you will be paid to write up. It does seem sad that after we've struggled for years in getting an education, with all the long hours, there isn't the income to help set you up in the next step, particularly as it seems that most jobs won't take you until after the whole process is finished. I have a huge amount of respect for Brooke, in getting herself out of a hole in an imaginative way, not to mention in awe of her writing skills. I don't think it is something I could do, but I can see why she did.

Aisha
on November 22, 2009 10:04 AM

Kate and Bill paid homage to the elephant in the room - the fact that sex for most women (heck, I'll even extend the notion to men) is both an emotional and personal experience. The fact that Brooke (regardless of obtaining a PhD - many of us have been relunctant to leave academia long enough to pocket one of those) chose to engage in selling her body for money probably comes from something inherent in her past circumstance and experience. There was a recent interview with her estranged father - who had separated from her mother soon after her first sojourn into university. He took a downward spiral where he engaged in drugs and prostitutes for 10 years. Brooke was thus introduced to this and it was probably a very difficult thing for her, and it ended up destroying a relationship she had cherished with a man she had looked up to. It doesn't sound at all glamorous - only unfortunate.

Wai Wong
on November 22, 2009 11:45 AM

In response to Greg's comment, Robert Scarth says "Supercilious nonsense. Footballers bring pleasure... the money paid to footballers is paid entirely voluntarily, all Government funded science is paid for with money which is taken from law abiding people under the threat of violence."

If only consumers are rational! The truth is that most people pay $$$ for instant gratification (like sex) rather than for their own good (like education). Surely we haven't evolved to be rational decision makers yet, as seen in problems like obesity, addiction, and credit card debts. That is why we need policy makers to coerce us to do the right things.

Proleetness
on November 22, 2009 3:12 PM

The mental illness epidemic that is economy, nuff siad.

ceres
on November 22, 2009 6:28 PM

why not call scientist? get in your department at any hour to help you with your science problems and charge per hours.

dichorionic
on November 22, 2009 6:51 PM

Intelligent argument is demeaned by hyperbole as in 'Kate's comments. Stopping benefits and university brothels reveal more about prejudices than understanding prostitution. As a gynaecologist I came across a number of escort girls and streetwalkers. The escort girls I met enjoyed their work, were confident and autonomous and had a clear business plan. "Prostitution is the use by a man of a woman as a 'thing'" may be true of a cheap transaction (a commercial exchange) in a car but was not true at the higher end where the business is about fantasy and entertainment and where friendly relationships develop in a way not dissimilar to what may arise with your accountant or sports coach. I enjoyed my time in cancer research but it was very dry and I escaped into sport and voluntary work for a bit of excitement and put up with the poor finances.

I think prostitution should be properly regulated (but no-one should ever be pressurised into taking a job as a prostitute).

We need to end the exploitative and dangerous side of prostitution - streetwalking, the links with drug addiction, pimping etc.

It's not just men paying for sex with women; there are plenty of women who would pay for sex with men, as long as it was safe to do so. And I imagine the same applies to same-sex arrangements as well. This happens in other countries where they don't have such ridiculous double standards.

Let's get over the ridiculous idea that men are beasts with insatiable sexual appetites and women are frigid, so men must pay women to do it. It just happens that we all have urges and sometimes paying to satisfy them would be the simplest solution.

Best wishes to Ms Magnanti for a successful scientific career. I hope that this revelation will make no difference to her career. After all, science is meant to be rational and sensible, right? And based on empirical evidence like how good you are at your job - not on what you did to get by as a student.

Oh yes, and let's fund PhDs properly too.

Gail
on November 22, 2009 7:55 PM

Let's face it - her undergrad degree was from a mediocre school in Florida; no American grad school of any worth would be knocking down her door . What amazes me is that you can get a PhD in England in 3 years?!! Absurd. Not worth the sheepskin it is printed on. Dr. Magnanti used what she had to get ahead..good on her. Who cares really. One prostitutes oneself to any job they have - whether it be academia, medicine, law, or marriage

anna
on November 22, 2009 11:09 PM

It is not true that an increase in PhD wages leads to an increase in teaching, and a longer time for the PhD to be completed. My husband is doing a PhD in Denmark, he is paid the same as if he was in a first time graduate job (enough for us to live in a nice flat in a good area of Copenhagen and have a nice, if not jetset, lifestyle on just his wage), is entitled to the same benefits such as thirty days holiday a year and paid paternity leave and it will only take three years.
And sorry Gail, a PhD does not need to take six years, the research done in a six year American PhD is not greater in any meaning of the word in America, and the six years is often down to the universities wishing to employ researchers at a very low wage.
I would also like to point out that if people were not prepared to sell their bodies a lot of science research would grind to a halt as their would be no human subjects. Funny that it is wrong to be paid for sex to complete a PhD for yourself, but ok to be paid to be a subject in an experiment for someone else's research.

Alex
on November 22, 2009 11:35 PM

I got my undergrad from even more mediocre school in Ukraine. I worked hard for a few years and now I am a Ph.D. in one of the Ivy League universities.
The truth is that the girl just wanted to get more money and do less work. Period.

BritChick USA
on November 23, 2009 1:16 AM

Whether women will pay men for sex or not, the truth is that we rarely have to.

I can tell you from experience that if you are a female in need of some no-strings fun (and I have been often) an online ad will bring 50 genuine replies in an hour, and a little careful email sifting sorts out the morons, fantasists, fibbers and losers from the nice guys, and then a face to face 'interview' does the rest. But men tell me that when they advertise on line like I do, all they get is replies from hookers!

So I can get a choice of nice men, (mostly married I'm sorry to say and being ignored at home - just like me) with no money changing hands at all. In fact I even split the cost of a hotel room, as I want to get my money's worth just like he does. It's a mutual exchange, not a service.

Strange, I'm a scientist too..... Perhaps we are better at emotional detachment, yet imaginative enough to know there is fun to be had out there? And the internet is a wonderful thing.

Ace
on November 23, 2009 4:31 AM

"Let's be frank, postdocs are not well paid - being debt-free enabled me to continue to choose science jobs I love rather than changing career."

That's so true. I totally changed my line of research - so much so that I am doing something rather far removed from my PhD - because I had to find a postdoc that would take me.

@Gail: Most PhDs in UK are funded only for three years but most take four to five years to complete. Unlike the US system where a PhD course is essentially a taught Master and a research PhD rolled into one, whereas most UK PhD candidates are suppose to have already graduated from a MSc from somewhere. The difference is like Set Menu (MSc and PhD in one uni) vs A La Carte (MSc and PhD in two unis).

Anon.
on November 23, 2009 7:05 AM

Tiffany writes:

"When I was a student (in the U.S.) I paid for all of my university education by working as a secretary, which can be pretty degrading work..."

Ditto. I temped my way through graduate school, working as a legal secretary and in finance in New York and Boston. I never met with degrading treatment from a client, but II used to wonder if it ever occurred to the women who ran my high class agencies to regard themselves in the light of pimps. It certainly occurred to me.

All the things crucial to being a top-of-the-line temp--without which one's crack qualifications counted for nothing--smacked of prostitution. One must dress properly and attractively for the client, with costume differing according to the professional sector. One must have impeccable grooming, tasteful make-up, and understated but good jewelry.

And one must know how to please--yes, one's client, but also one's pimp. At the agency hiring interview, there's only one shot to see that the all-important box--"front desk"--is ticked off by the interviewer. To achieve this, one must project the right balance of competence, attractiveness, serenity, and brains.

My agencies, like Belle's, vetted their clients carefully, so I was well treated and highly appreciated. I performed so well that in short order I was sent out to first-time clients, expected to represent the agency in such wise as to clinch the account. Not that my premiere talent ever earned me a raise. The agency took its fifty percent and that was it.

Finally, there was the element of one's essential disposability. I never kidded myself that if the agency were forced to choose between having my back and maintaining an account, I would be the winner. And if not disposal now, then disposal later. For it was clear from observing the pool that one would age out of the profession on reaching the day of looking like somebody's idea of thirty-five, maybe just a little tired around the eyes or the corners of the mouth...

Until that day, however, the women who hire and the women who are hired out meet in a comic minuet of sisterly solidarity. See how perfectly our interests mesh, the sellers and the sold!

Richard Wagner
on November 23, 2009 7:13 AM

This is clear evidence that no matter the level of education, women are still morally vacuous.

Tom
on November 23, 2009 10:08 AM

I'm more intrigued that thyroid cancer in Cumbria is linked to Chernobyl and yet there is another source on the doorstep. I remember at the time being baffled how those damned commies had the technology to make their fallout look like a plume from Sellafield that those in Sellafield hoped would be masked by the Ruski pollution.

Katya
on November 23, 2009 3:07 PM

To Richard Wagner:

Who is morally vacuous? Who is PAYING to have sex with women? MEN?

Rob
on November 23, 2009 4:23 PM

Never even asked how much she charged for A-Levels.

BritChickUSA
on November 23, 2009 4:42 PM

If British education is so bad Gail, and American education so much better, why are so many H1B visas going to foreigners of which many are Brits? Sorry, I'm a Brit working in science in USA, we have Brits, Chinese, South Americans, Europeans... more foreigners than Americans. I've put 2 kids through high school here in USA, and it takes two years of undergraduate college to get up to the standard of British A levels, which is why Americans take 4 years for a first degree. The high school exit exam is a farce in most states, equivalent of about what a 14 year old would be doing at a decent European high school.

People do Masters then go on to a PhD here, whereas in the UK it's usually a straight degree / PhD path. I was offered one just like that. Did a Master instead which was considered more appropriate for actually getting an industry job. (Never wanted to be an academic - couldn't face the lack of money.)

Richard Wagner - women who like sex and are upfront, agressive and open about it are morally vacuous? And the men who do are just what... blokes? Oh dear...do get over yourself.

Great stuff Brooke, you have upset people by showing that bright women are sexy.... many men just hate that still I'm afraid. Many - but not all - still like their sexy women dumb. A bright sexy woman is a challenging thing...!

Oh dear, intelligent mature woman makes a personal choice about her life and way to earn living, that will never do will it ? Obviously she must be a publicity seeker or a gender traitor or something. Good luck to her and the moralists and axe grinders can get lost.

By Michael Marshall
on November 23, 2009 5:27 PM

Katya:

I'm thinking that the comment by "Richard Wagner" might be a joke on the 19th century German composer of that name, who is known for having held rather sexist views - see for instance his portrayal of the morally vacuous Rhine Maidens in the Ring Cycle.

Either that or it's a coincidence!

MGS
on November 23, 2009 8:01 PM

As a Yank, I'm not sure if this is an American vs. British bias, or simply my own. However, I see what she did as solely her own business and not really that interesting. More fascinated by the responses.

Sexual kink? Really? Moral degenerate? These are fairly outlandish claims against someone who we don't know personally. I think it interesting that so many persons would invest the emotional energy against a stranger who, after all, has made personal choices that are at worst less egregiously wrong than 99% of what we read in the news.

Just one opinion.

KB
on November 23, 2009 10:06 PM

I think that what Dr. Magnanti did will forever cause her to be less credible in a lot of people's minds. No matter how educated and articulate she is, at the end of the day she is a common w----.

Many of us have accumulated significant debt in the pursuit of higher education but never once considered selling our souls. She justifies her actions by claiming that it was convenient. Well, where does that argument end? We could all make a lot of money selling drugs or robbing banks, but thankfully we are not all of the mindset that the ends justifies the means.

I can't tell you how many strippers I've met through my work in law enforcement who all claim that they are going to be brain surgeons and Nobel Peace Prize winners too. Whatever.

Sean_VN
on November 24, 2009 3:06 AM

It is true that you don't get paid for doing science. However if you write a stupid song that gets on the top 40 list you will be well looked after for the rest of your life. The human species is doomed. Bring on the robots.

paul Skinner
on November 24, 2009 9:10 AM

What of the rat that blew the whiste on this lady. She/he is in the gutter not the lady that defended herselfe rather than run and hide.

BE HAPPY

S.Hayward
on November 24, 2009 10:18 AM

Thank goodness Dr Magnanti didn't plagiarise the works of other scientists; present false research results to get funding; steal technical equipment (a common problem in research labs), or act as a government advisor at the same time as promoting conflicting interests for commercial companies; those would really ruin her reputation.

Of course, she may well have chosen an honest profession to earn money. Here are a few suggestions:
Second-hand car salesperson
Estate agent
Politician
University lecturer getting consultancy fees for students work and use of college facilities
Banker
Lawyer
Paparazzi photographer

Jobs to avoid are:
Social worker if you are a paedophile
Security expert if you are a convicted criminal
Or any job that involves government confidential data handling if you are totally incompetent.
It is not that these jobs are bad, but the media tend to look at them when nothing much else is happening.

Of course, if you really want to make money, then set up a pornograhy website. It is the fastest growing industry and gets the most traffic of any subject. Also, according to stats, most are set up by women.
True, they are frowned upon by unattractive women, and men who wish to take a high moral stand (no pun) outwardly if not in reality. But such people are generally not aware of what is going on in the virtual world that we are increasingly living in.

Stan M Horszowski
on November 24, 2009 7:37 PM

Has anyone had the moral courage to say : ' I do not approve of prostitution because it is against my Christian principles ' ?

Kelly
on November 24, 2009 10:07 PM

She might be intelligent, but any scientist can see she's not all there. She sounds disordered from the 'profession' in her blog. Very helpless, insecure and bitter in parts, with an ego a size I've never seen.

There are other ways to be treated like pretty poo by a man - jobs as a secretary, nurse.

Elaine
on November 24, 2009 10:11 PM

Well done Brooke/Belle, I loved the books! A bit of escapism whilst I was struggling to write up my own PhD thesis (scrounging off my boyfriend for a year to pay the bills...)

You're clearly a very talented writer and for all those people with negative viewpoints, just do a quick search on PubMed...I doubt many people can say they've published in several peer reviewed journals as well as having two best sellers. Oh yeah, and a TV series. Good luck with your life back in the lab coat :)

jane
on November 24, 2009 10:22 PM

The problem Brooke will face is not I beleive one of people accusing her of being immoral (they will do, but I am sure she can handle that), but people laughing at her. The Brookes describing things very graphically, and I am sure her co-workers will be sniggering away for the rest of her life. If she chooses to work in science she is always going to have jokes made about her, and people sniggering, and her boyfirends will always be mocked too. People will be sorry for people who had to work as prostitutes, but brookes graphic sexual accounts will just make people snigger when they actually know that she is not some imaginary character, but a rather ordinary looking woman.

Stan M Horszowski
on November 24, 2009 10:42 PM

Has anyone had the moral courage to say : ' I do not approve of prostitution because it is against my Christian principles ' ?

K
on November 25, 2009 9:18 AM

Seriously? "Who would want to be with her if she's so easy for the right price?" "she's so money orientated" and all the other rubbish you people are spouting. I've worked in a bar that hired girls as 'skimpy barmaids'. Many of these girls were overseas university students. If I had the body I would probably do the same. I was earning maybe AUD$16/hr and these girls did the same job with lingerie on and earnt AU$40/hr plus tips. I knew one girl who paid off her med degree in one summer. I don't know of many summer jobs that allow that. Good on them.

Jeff
on November 25, 2009 3:03 PM

Men having to pay for sex is one of the greatest sexist imbalances in life. In her Freakonomics interview she says:

" women are widely perceived as the gatekeepers to sex, so in theory they can have it as often as they like, and men do not get a say in that. It’s not universally true of course, but that is a dominant dynamic."

which is so true. But how did it get that way? Surely women should be paying us for sex, since it is the men who are essentially "giving" some genetic fluid to the woman?

I suppose you could say it is the "evolution" of society - in caveman days, men did not have to ask, bribe or pay women for sex. They just did it, and the woman would either fight her off and let him do his deed (quite like how promiscuous women behave towards men in modern society). Then laws and societal norms made all that wrong. Societal structures were made in place that restricted the ability for men to just have sex when they wanted it - up until recently, for hundreds of years you had to court, then marry, before finally have sex.

Those medieval barriers have broken down somewhat, allowing the gender imbalance regarding sex to narrow a bit. But with the exception of Middle East and African countries, women will always be the "gatekeepers of sex" - due to the laws that make up civilised society.

NOTE: Just for the record, I'm not saying that this is right or wrong, or that we would be better off with anyone raping women just because they can... it's just that I have seen women (at least those in developed countries) increasingly "price" themselves out of the market, demanding more from their suitors.

Jeff
on November 25, 2009 3:07 PM

@jane on November 24, 2009 10:22 PM

How do you know she'll have boyfriends ever again - at least certainly not your conventional one?

If a male had participated in being a rent boy (if there is the heterosexual equivalent to it), and then revealed his occupation, I'm sure there would be no suggestion about any future girlfriends he may have - because quite simply, he won't, unless she was in the dark about it.

Jane
on November 25, 2009 6:32 PM

Jeff,
As far as I am aware, men do not have to pay for sex. They may choose to of course, but there is no law against not paying so long as it is with a consenting partner over the age of consent. And you cannot seriously believe sex before marriage is a recent thing do you? And what exactly are you suggesting that it is wrong for people not to have sex with other people simply because they do not want to have sex with them. If a man wanted to have sex with you and you did not want to, would you be generous enough to offer up your body for his pleasure?

Also I think if Brooke wants to continue her science work she may have to stop writing her blog and giving interviews. Her employers have said her past does not impinge on her work, but they did not mention anything about her future. If she chooses to continue writing in the same manner now that she is known she will have to accept that people may not wish to employ her. It is a shame as she is stll the same person she was before, and it will be the people who would benefit from her research that would suffer in the long run.

Wai Wong
on November 25, 2009 9:28 PM

I have a brainwave. It may sound laughable but I am not joking. It is a scheme to allow people to buy sex morally and help students in hardship at the same time.

The scheme is to setup a student assistance charity which gives loans/grants to students who are struggling to pay bills. Repayment is entirely voluntary. I expect more than half of them will repay, and some will repay more than they owe in the form of donation. The main source of funds is tax deductible donations. The main incentive is that donors who donate more than a certain amount (say $5000) are entitled to free sex provided by a volunteer who may or may not be a student. The volunteer is expected to be treated as a date, not a prostitute because she/he has no or negligible financial gain. Since exploitation is eliminated, both parties should feel good rather than guilty or shameful. People who loath such sex activities can prevent them by donating - the more they donate, the fewer such sex activities. I may be wrong, but I find nothing immoral with such scheme. Even so, people may still object because humans are not always rational.

I have no idea how many ladies are willing to have sex for a good course, but I won't be surprised if there are more of them then escort girls.

The Lozzster
on November 26, 2009 6:20 PM

As a young gay man with a passion for science and technology, I appreciate Brooke's work in dispelling the myth that anyone with technical interests and knowledge is nerdy, socially and sexually inept, unattractive and generally uncool.

I think it's safe to say that none of those labels could possibly be applied to 'Belle', and I shall duly use her example whenever the "science is for lonely nerds" stereotype rears its ugly head.

David Tennant started the ball rolling for male geek hipness, and now Belle has taken up the baton for the girls.

Regarding the poster who decried feminism as the cause of modern society's woes: I can't help sensing a little bitterness in your comments, sir...

Anyhow, back to dv/dt.

Susanne
on November 26, 2009 6:59 PM

Wai Wong,
That would be con sidered living off imoral earnings legally and higly dubious morally. Just because a person does not get paid for sex does not mean it is ok for someone else be it their boss or teacher gets paid for their "work".
I also do not understand how escort agencies are legal as surely they do break the equality laws. As far as I am aware escort agencies are not exempt from any discrimination laws, which means that it is illegal of them to bar someone from working as a escort on the basis of their age, sex, religion, race, looks, weight etc. And if a client says he wants to have a person of a certain race or age then he should legally be barred. I am sure that if these are legal businesses they have to abide by these rules, don't they? It is illegal to not hire a secretary or waiting staff on this basis after all. Maybe we should all wait until we are old and then apply and sue them for age discrimination to pay for our retirement!!

Wai Wong
on November 26, 2009 10:31 PM

Susanne,
Why is such sex immoral? It doesn't involve exploitation, violence, unfair advantage, or demeaning of women. It hurts no one but benefits many.
As for equality laws, it is OK for certain jobs (e.g. actor, cheerleader, dancer, etc) to have specific requirements regarding sex, age and even appearance.

GW
on November 27, 2009 12:16 AM

@Annoyed Tunbridge Wells. That is one theory. Problem is, you are presenting your theory as fact, a trap many people in your town, not to mention the editorial staff of the Daily Mail, constantly fall into.

susanne
on November 27, 2009 10:05 PM

Wai Wong,
Sex is not imoral and prostitution is not illegal. but making money from another man or woman having sex is illegal. that is why escort agencies will be quick to say they do not provide women for sex, just company. If Belle is telling the truth when she says her agency went through the sex acts she would be prepared to perform for their clients they acted illegally. And yes some jobs do have specific requirements, but as escort agencies only provide dates not sex they cannot refuse to hire a person who was not attractive, or said they would not have sex with a client. They can only refuse to hire someone if they do not have the ability to do the job in question.
And the sex you are suggesting is very immoral as it is exploiting, and taking unfair advantage. It is basicly denying an education to someone unless sex is procured for someone else. There is enough money to do a PhD in Britain, it just will not give the same type of money as being paid for sex acts.

gregory zurbay
on November 28, 2009 5:36 AM

Brooke congrats, you took personal responsibility and attained the goal you set for yourself, re-enforcing the old saying "God takes care of those who..." What I find a bit disappointing is the moralists ready to find fault, irrespective the fact they can demonstrate damage to no one. In favor of freedom, unless it is under their terms, they manage to talk the talk but never walk the walk. Finally forget calling Ray give me a call.

you have composed a couregeous book so congrets.
I think that it is sort of a confessional and better then confessing in a conf.box.

toppers
on November 28, 2009 5:32 PM

Good show Brooke. You write superbly, very Martin Amis, and clearly have a head for statistics - two skills I lack. The best of luck for your career.

Incidentally - I graduated high school in the US and attended college in the UK. The standard of UK school leavers is considerably higher than in the US, also the research part of a PhD need only take 3-4 years. So those who feels that Brit PhDs are lacking are misinformed.

rollo
on November 29, 2009 5:40 AM

Some of these comments really are left by total tards, but then most science graduates don't have the benefit of an anthropologic foundation, more's the pity.

I'm a male, a gay male, and if I ever were to sell my body to get by, or to get myself further, phD or no, then I'd do so with few qualms and little compunction. For it's my body and I'll do with it what I like. And if I wrote a blog or a book or a song about it, I'd gladly profit.

Mayhaps, underneath all of the moralising and looking down our oh-so learned noses, all of the gender debates and exploitative worries aside, we're just a tad jealous?

It doesn't mean that she's 'disordered' (Foucault and the feminists would have a field day with this one, but eh, that's a humanities thing), or unstable or morally degenerate. From what I have read there are underlying psychosocial reasons for her having crossed that threshold, but really, who hasn't fetishised in the privacy of their own bedrooms? (And that means YOU.)

It's possible Dr. Brooke is just one of those who understand sex as sex, with fewer of the social hangups that we heap on it to *order*, *control*, or *regulate* what is one of the most disordering facets of human existence. And that's a very rational way of looking at sexuality and the expression of.

And gosh, aren't the media exploiting her story something shocking? Aren't we just lapping up the details.

Finally, some of you are right in saying that Belle De Jour and Dr. Brooke Magnanti will meet with trials in her real world profession. It's naive to think that the compartmentalisation of the rational will hold for others - most can't differentiate between night and day when presented with an individual. I'd switch on over in to sociocultural anthropology where they'd canonise her as a saint, or if science is something that she loves so dearly, then then fuck 'em, the old boys love a whore, and there's plenty of epidemiological work out there which reflects that.

But eh, the book deals mean that Magnanti can do as she pleases. And good for her.

Richard Barnby
on November 29, 2009 8:15 PM

I have no qualifications in science, but take the New Scientist to keep me abreast of what is going on in the world of science.

To read that some scientists are condeming this girl for working for a while as a prostitute and thinking that some of you know more about her motives than she does seems that you know more about her than you could possibly know.

We all work for money and sell ourselves everyday, but it seems that she must be condemned because you consider selling sex imoral. Well that is a point of view not shared by a huge majority of men down the ages, who for many reasons are unable to have a "normal relationship" with a woman.

Whatever her motives, and I am quite happy to believe her in what she says, I feel it has nothing to do with her competence as a scientist any more that it would if a male scientist were to pay a prostitute for sex, and I am sure there are plenty.

Who is the biggest offender the man or the woman when buying and selling sex, if anyone? As long as both parties are consenting and the woman is freely offering sex and a huge majority do it freely, and are doing it because they enjoy the lifestyle then they should be allowed their free choice in life.

I for one wish her the best in her career as a scientist. Maybe there would be some value in doing research into prostitution and it's benefits or not to society,

Iscander
on December 1, 2009 3:26 AM

>We all work for money and sell ourselves everyday
It's not the same. We are selling our time, not our bodies.

I love all your comments. I think there's a book in all of you. Especially KB in law enforcement and whoever said 'Bring on the robots'.

The only observation I have is that BDJ/Dr Brooke M has profited twice over from her escorting sideline. Once when the customers were paying for her company, and again when she wrote about them. I am just wondering, when do her clients receive their percentage of her profits? And what sort of artistic release form or copyright waiver did they sign to give their permission to be exploited, if the argument is over anyone's exploitation? It seems that she was remunerated well for her company. What has she since granted them for her unauthorised use and plagiarism of theirs? In the old days, this would be called 'blackmail' - profiting from private information on clients. Did she not have a confidentiality agreement with her agency regarding clients? And does that include published autobiographies, names withheld or otherwise?

I concede that she was not working for MI5 exactly, and pillow talk was probably just that. But the way her identity was revealed seems that perhaps a confidentiality agreement was something she would have appreciated herself in her private life.

By the way, I'm a single blonde woman of similar age, and I got through University working as a nightclub bouncer and first aider. I get to keep all my clothes on, and still meet perverts asking me to spank them as I throw them out. I just tell them they can't afford me.

As for what I write about, I'm writing a scientific novel... ;)

(c) LS 2009

Pamela Speak
on December 1, 2009 8:41 PM

Somebody commented that Brits get out of high school at 15 and we're poorly educated?

The British education ends for mandatory schooling at 16, not 15...though it is true that some people with birthdays in July and August may be 15, its not the norm.
From this point on it's either work or college for A Levels (or an A Level equivalent) this generally ends at 18/19 at which point the idea is once more, work or move on.
University is three years, four if you do a one year prepatory course, this would generally finish for people around the age of 21/22. Then once more comes the decision, work or move on in education.
Masters, some people can go straight to PhD but for most of us its Masters or bust, this can cost up to £10,000 including tuition, rent and food. There are grants available but these are very difficult to get and so its either paid by parents or getting a graduate loan or job advancement loan. This takes one year and if the person is lucky and wishes it, it can lead to a PhD, this is generally three years.
By the time people come out of education in Britain (providing they have chosen to go all the way) they will generally be 26 and over.
More and more people in Britain are choosing University as a chance to better their chances of getting a job that doesn't require asking if fries are required with the purchase.
It's my understanding that in America you have two extra years to be able to ask that very question.

As for Dr Magnanti, she put herself in a difficult position in order to survive, she could have asked parents and friends for hand-out's but she didn't. Yet people dare criticise because she chose to earn her money an alternative way.
How very dare you, yes, prostitution is a nasty way of life and for some dangerous, but as Dr Magnanti has stated several times in her blog, she uses condom's without question, her clients were veted by the agency and what she was doing was perfectly legal. How dare you judge a woman for making her own way in life and ending up in a position of respect, is that the problem you have? That she isn't a drug addled whore with no prospects or that she's a scientist with a secure future and an amazing mind?
Now I'm not a solicitor and I don't know the legalities of what she did but I trust that when she says she was legal, she was.
So where's the problem? Ten years ago getting grants for a PhD was almost impossible and to extinguish what is obviously a promising career because of funding is a crime in my eyes.

Brooke paid her own way, worked hard, and got to where she is today. So what if she was a callgirl? She didn't harm anyone, no one harmed her, and she did it in a safe way. There shouldn't be that kind of stigma associated with the sex industry in this day and age. The whole 'slut' idea... it's a holdover. Women should be able to have sex with whoever they want to, and if they charge money for it and use it as a service, well why not? It's their life and their body. What gives any of you the right to judge?

She is an intelligent, thoughtful person and that comes across in her writing. It's not sordid or crass or anything. It's refreshingly honest.

People are just using her as an object for their own prejudices.

Gil Lambert
on December 6, 2009 11:05 AM

I can only wish Brooke al the best for her future. She's a lovely, highly intelligent, and courageous woman. I only hope the science establishment is able to differentiate between Belle de Jour, the call girl, and Brooke Magnanti, the scientist. I somehow think that they won't, unfortunately. There are a lot of hidden sexual deviations in the science world which makes the science establishment very paraphobic.
I just wish her good fortune in her life.

Alot of the time i see pages with silly comments and thought wouldn't it be nice to be one.. Nice blog found you via Bing. Will check back. See what other jems you post.

dorvek
on December 11, 2009 11:45 AM

Prostitution will last as long as money rules the society we are bound to live our human lives in, and yes it will always be squallid somehow, even at the "escort" level. It is however a part of life that we must face, but glamour it shall never be, just a necessary evil such as the need for money... (But I dare say it is NOT against my Christian principles, since Christianity is against my moral principles, to begin with... )

dorvek
on December 11, 2009 12:01 PM

Prostitution will last as long as money rules the society we are bound to live our human lives in, and yes it will always be squallid somehow, even at the "escort" level. It is however a part of life that we must face, but glamour it shall never be, just a necessary evil such as the need for money... (But I dare say it is NOT against my Christian principles, since Christianity is against my moral principles, to begin with... )

scarlet pimpernel
on December 31, 2009 3:59 PM

let's see a trollop gets her degrees by offering services to the deans. she could blow her way to the prime minister slot.

Anita
on January 18, 2010 10:16 AM

I'm glad I found this interview with dr. Brooke Magnanti.

She sounds as a very fascinating person and I hope she gets to work in science as she wanted. I was sad to see her name removed from the list of employees. http://www.medici.bris.ac.uk/staff/member/staff.html?person_code=146320
I hope it's because she had another offer to work in the science field and not because the pressure of morally narrow society became too much.

Jewel
on January 21, 2010 1:27 PM

Well done, girl! There's a lot of us, clever and beautiful, out there and we deserve our dreams come true just like anyone else. I admire your courage. I'm still on the game for a year or so, but even when it's over, I don't think I'll have the guts to admit to what I'm doing. Still too much pressure in our enlightened society on a woman who's clever enough to choose something easy and well-paid over working her socks off night and day for peanuts. So good for you! You've achieved what you wanted and more and you were true to yourself - you should be proud of who you are! And ignore all those one-track-minded people who envy your beauty/ courage/ income/ self-confidence, etc. Hope everything turns out well for you.

Jack
on January 26, 2010 4:06 PM

Please. Let's not bring up "autonomy," because I can't stop laughing. Magnanti relied on men and their money to get what she wanted in life. Her professional career was bought by men doing what they wanted to her for two hours at a time. Yep, very honorable.

I am sure, she is perfectly fine. She already made an enormous contribution to science. In her groundbreaking work "Belle de Jour" Magnanti laid ground for new promising fields such as minetistics and applied prostitulogy. Her use of metrics to describe various aspects of her partners although somewhat subjective, but nevertheless promising.
Right now she is probably... hm... soliciting grants and collecting experimental data for her next fundamental monography on the subject.

Don’t ask me why, but I love this guy. I had no prior knowledge of him until I saw this figure on the back of the Blue Beetle card. I’d go as far as to say he motivated me to pick up wave 7 and start collecting DCUC (!). Mine did come with a messed up emblem, though. It’s missing a small section on one of the outer loops. Kind of depressing because it was the only Aquaman figure I had come across at that point and I really wanted to complete AS. Of course I saw another Aquaman at Wal-mart last and almost bought him just to switch out the torso and return him, but decided against it because the rest of the torso had sloppy paint. It would just be an endless cycle. I determined it would be easier to fix the logo myself.

Fantastic posting, I bookmarked your blog so I can visit again in the near future, Thanks

zeldovich
on March 1, 2010 9:24 PM

It's too bad she's not still taking clients.

Susannah
on April 1, 2010 4:40 PM

Annoyed Tunbridge Wells says: "She could have found herself a stockbroker or banker, then divorced and done well out of the arrangement. She could have even found herself an older research fellow/lecturer/professor/administrator." How is marrying a man solely for his money, and then divorcing him and possibly breaking his heart to get it, any more moral than outright prostitution? And anyone who has ever gone on a blind date, or used a dating service, or left a party with someone they just met has put themselves in "position of risk from violence and sexual diseases deliberately". I think the main difference here is that Dr. Magnanti chose a more honest, straightforward and empowered path - and any time an intelligent woman does that, it makes the repressed general populace very, very uncomfortable.

Fayzal Mahamed
on April 4, 2010 12:07 PM

My teenage daughter is presently going through boyfreinds (and the sexual activity part of it) as if it was going to go out of fashion anytime. I want to educate her that instead of merely browing through her boufreinds she should open a "proffesional service" and maybe she could then obtain some financial gain at the same time she is getting a sexual satisfaction from her activity. I therefore wish Brooke well in her scientific endeavour as she was certainly smart to put her sexual activity to good use as a financial gain.

That's a really interesting story but it's really sad at the same time that she had to that to make a living. I know that a lot of students are doing that kind of job to finance their school. We should seriously find a solution because students are supposed to study but they don't have money at the same time so they have to work in order to survive. That situation is not sustainable and the governments should help them.

Sacha
on September 1, 2010 2:59 AM

The comments by Annoyed Tunbridge Wells and may others here reiterate how distasteful and shameful they think being a prostitute is, yet they go on to say that "Belle"should have found a rich man to take care of her, as if that is somehow better. Obviously these people believe that prostitution refers only to cases in which cash is exchanged for sex outside the bounds of a "relationship". In my opinion, there are many forms of prostitution: deciding that you will only date someone who drives a car, or can take of you financially is just as mercenary, just...less honest. At least Dr. Maganti was open about what she did, instead of cowering beyond what is socially acceptable. Perhaps the new face of feminism is having the option to choose what you do without judgement and ostracism. Let me know when we get to that point.

Good insightful read. Never thought that it was this simple after all. I had used a good deal of my time looking online for some great mind to explain this matter clearly to me and just did that. Thanks a lot! Have a great day.

(The more controversial your comment, within reason, the more likely it will be approved. The blog owner WANTS comments that will cause more comments, or even better, the blog owner will approve your comment just so he/she can argue with you via a comment of their own)